That is... such sad... sad news... 
What!!!!
Just kidding. Let's party!!!
Posted on 07/21/2005 6:18:53 PM PDT by bitt
Note: This essay will appear in the Book Review dated July 31.
THE conventional news media are embattled. Attacked by both left and right in book after book, rocked by scandals, challenged by upstart bloggers, they have become a focus of controversy and concern. Their audience is in decline, their credibility with the public in shreds. In a recent poll conducted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center, 65 percent of the respondents thought that most news organizations, if they discover they've made a mistake, try to ignore it or cover it up, and 79 percent opined that a media company would hesitate to carry negative stories about a corporation from which it received substantial advertising revenues.
The industry's critics agree that the function of the news is to inform people about social, political, cultural, ethical and economic issues so that they can vote and otherwise express themselves as responsible citizens. They agree on the related point that journalism is a profession rather than just a trade and therefore that journalists and their employers must not allow profit considerations to dominate, but must acknowledge an ethical duty to report the news accurately, soberly, without bias, reserving the expression of political preferences for the editorial page and its radio and television counterparts. The critics further agree, as they must, that 30 years ago news reporting was dominated by newspapers and by television network news and that the audiences for these media have declined with the rise of competing sources, notably cable television and the Web.
The audience decline is potentially fatal for newspapers. Not only has their daily readership dropped from 52.6 percent of adults in 1990 to 37.5 percent in 2000, but the drop is much steeper in the 20-to-49-year-old cohort, a generation that is, and as it ages ..
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
GOOD News.
ping-worthy.
Crap.
It was when journalism decided it was a profession and founded journalism schools and hired it's graduates to replace tough street guys who could find out what was happening and then write it up clearly that it all went to hell.
So9
And the bad news would be...?
It's gotten so bad that even third-world dictators throw people like Andrea Mitchell out of press conferences.
Like anybody in the MSM even bothered to report anything at all the Swift Boat Vets said--except in some vicious ad hominem attack on them.
This is strong BS. Once the media sets itself up as attempting this, it puts itself on a pedastal and claims priviledges that are not healthy for a free society.
Ouch! That's gotta hurt.
YOWZA! It's time to NOT alter my tagline.
A rather serious analysis.....I liked this paragraph:
"Being profit-driven, the media respond to the actual demands of their audience rather than to the idealized ''thirst for knowledge'' demand posited by public intellectuals and deans of journalism schools. They serve up what the consumer wants, and the more intense the competitive pressure, the better they do it. We see this in the media's coverage of political campaigns. Relatively little attention is paid to issues. Fundamental questions, like the actual difference in policies that might result if one candidate rather than the other won, get little play. The focus instead is on who's ahead, viewed as a function of campaign tactics, which are meticulously reported. Candidates' statements are evaluated not for their truth but for their adroitness; it is assumed, without a hint of embarrassment, that a political candidate who levels with voters disqualifies himself from being taken seriously, like a racehorse that tries to hug the outside of the track. News coverage of a political campaign is oriented to a public that enjoys competitive sports, not to one that is civic-minded.
"must acknowledge an ethical duty to report the news accurately, soberly, without bias, reserving the expression of political preferences for the editorial page"
I can't wait for them to finally start doing this for the first time.
Attention journalists: the military keeps us safe and free, not you; all that you should ever do is report us the facts in an objective and totally unbiased manner. We know how to think for ourselves and we know where the voting box is, too.
Now go get over yourselves and start learning - finally - how to be objective.
Pray for W and Our Troops
In addition to being an author, Richard Posner is a Judge on the U.S. Seventh Court Of Appeals, and a brilliant legal mind. Here's his bio: http://home.uchicago.edu/~rposner/biography
If only Ronald Reagan had appointed Posner to the Supreme COurt instead of the mediocre Anthony Kennedy in 1987.
There's my line of the day.
Thanks!
(snort/giggle/roll on the floor..)
That is... such sad... sad news... What!!!!
Just kidding. Let's party!!!
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